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21 de set. 2018

"The judge of Investigation Court 13 now admits he was investigating the referendum" by Núria Orriols

A Barcelona judge claimed not to be investigating the run-up to the 1 October 2017 referendum, but has admitted deliberately lying.

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The judge of Investigation Court 13 now admits he was investigating the referendum

Drets is studying suing him for falsification and prevarication

NÚRIA ORRIOLS Barcelona 09/18/2018 23:14

Original article: https://www.ara.cat/politica/jutge-desdiu-admet-investigava-referendum_0_2091390927.htmlThe investigation by Court of instruction number 13 of Barcelona began with a complaint by Vox against Santi Vidal, Lluís Salvadó and Carles Viver and Pi-Sunyer on charges of misuse of public funds, disobedience, revelation of secrets, rebellion and sedition, among others. But in practice it became the first investigation into the October 1 referendum and the springboard thanks to which on 20 September last year the Civil Guard searched several offices of the Generalitat and arrested about 15 people. However, despite this, this judge had avoided confirming that he was investigating 1-Oct. Until now. In the context of a lawsuit filed by Drets, a group of lawyers, against the Civil Guard, the judge of Court No. 13 admits two things that he had previously denied: that he has been investigating the holding of the referendum since March 2017 and that it was he that ordered the interrogations of Government officials carried out by the Civil Guard on the National Pact for the Referendum website.
In a resolution in response to the Provincial Court of Barcelona to which the ARA has had access, Court No. 13 claims that since March 2017 the investigation which was opened as a result of Vox's lawsuit against Santi Vidal has included the "actions and expenses directly aimed at holding a referendum on self-determination". And it adds, in the same resolution, that it ordered the Civil Guard to interrogate the Generalitat officials. According to Drets' sources, the judge's response contradicts those he himself gave earlier. On the one hand, the judge issued a resolution in July 2017 -months after initiating the investigation- addressed to the CUP in which he affirmed that the cause he was investigating "was not aimed at the political organization, or the convening, of the referendum" and that for that reason he turned down this political party's requested involvement in the court process. On the other hand, the judge denied in July 2017, through the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, that he had ordered the interrogations of senior Government's officials about the National Pact for the Referendum. "The proceedings that the Civil Guard are undertaking are judicial police proceedings, and they have not been asked by the investigating judge of Court No. 13," said the TSJC at that time through its official Twitter account. On the other hand, in this latest resolution the judge states that the National Pact for the Referendum website has been investigated since May 2017 and that is why he called for statements by all those who might have "intervened in the authorization, creation and development" of this website, which ended up, according to the judge, in the hands of Omnium.

Drets hold that the judge of Court No. 13 has been building "a general cause against the independence movement to avoid the referendum and that for some reason the court denied it, and has been publicly hidden the truth", which, they believe, could lead to the "nullity" of the cause. For all this, the group is studying a lawsuit on grounds of falsehood, prevarication and violation of fundamental rights against the judge and his judicial secretary, who signed the resolution sent to the Provincial Court and who, moreover, was the public lawyer who attended the search by the Civil Guard of the seat of the Catalan Ministry of Economy on September 20, 2017. In that operation, the lawyer ended up leaving across the roof of the Department to avoid the protesters who were at the gates of the building, and has become a key witness in the rebellion case being investigated by the Supreme Court - also on the referendum - to prove an alleged tumult during the protest. "It will be important to know what her action was inside the Department and why Court No. 13 had denied that it was investigating the 1st Ocotber [referendum], when she herself has ended up certifying that it was doing so," Drets say.

The antecedents of the case

Drets sued the Civil Guard for documentary falsification because in July 2017 they had called in for questioning top officials of the Generalitat saying that they did so by order of Court No. 13. At that time the TSJC denied that the judge had made this petition. The Provincial Court considered that it had to be admitted - although it had previously been turned down by a Barcelona court - to clarify if the Civil Guard "had not told the truth" in saying that they had acted within the framework of the investigation of Court No. 13. Finally, however, it was the judge himself who made the correction.